Repair bill for Art School blaze could reach £35million

THE cost of repairing the fire-ravaged Glasgow School of Art could hit £35million, MSPs were told yesterday.

Prof Tom Inns says restoration of the Glasgow School of Art could take four years [SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT]

The school’s director, Professor Tom Inns, also told the education and culture committee at Holyrood that it could take four years to restore.

He said the bill could be met by government, insurance and public donations.

A fundraising campaign will be launched on Wednesday to raise around £20million for the historic Charles Rennie Mackintosh building gutted in last month’s blaze.

We have been in discussion with the insurance company and a team of people appointed to deal with the immediate securing of the building

Professor Tom Inns

A £750,000 fund will be made available to students to recreate works they lost in the fire. Many were putting the final touches to their end-of-year projects at the time.

The library was destroyed, but the school’s Mackintosh Museum and the archives survived. Firefighters managed to save about 90 per cent of the structure and 70 per cent of its contents.

Professor Inns said the school was in a “complex negotiation” with insurers but they will not fund the whole restoration.

“We have been in discussion with the insurance company and a team of people appointed to deal with the immediate securing of the building, and the estimates are probably somewhere between £20million and £35million,” he said.